


Aura and Partners

by LeDiz



Series: The 48: Pokemon [2]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime)
Genre: Aura - Freeform, Friendship, Gen, I swear it, Partnership, Series: XY, ash has a plotline
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2016-08-14
Packaged: 2018-08-08 16:49:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7765645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeDiz/pseuds/LeDiz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Korrina's Lucario thinks Ash knows something it doesn't. Ash was asleep and remains confused, while Pikachu tries to read between the lines.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Aura and Partners

“Hm? Lucario?”

Coming out of a deep dream about a field of flowers, Pikachu wasn’t entirely sure whether it was Ash’s mumbling or the blue light that woke him up. He blinked wearily, barely able to lift his head as he peered over Ash’s arm to the soft shine below their bunk. Ash grumbled something unintelligible as he pulled himself up to sitting, where he could lean over and look down.

“Lucario?” he whispered again. “What’s wrong?”

There was no audible answer, but the blue light disappeared, and after a moment, Ash asked, “You want me to come with you?”

Again, nothing audible. Pikachu looked up at Ash, who didn’t seem all that surprised to see him awake, and they both shrugged. Pikachu struggled to move enough for Ash to jump down, where he then reached up enough that Pikachu only really needed to slide into his trainer’s hands in order to be moved onto Ash’s shoulder.

Yes, he was spoiled, thank you for noticing. He wallowed in the reminder by snuggling close to Ash’s neck as they followed Lucario out.

But the night air soon woke him up, as they only paused long enough for Ash to collect his shoes before leaving the tree house behind to enter the dewy field that surrounded it. Once they’d reached the very centre of it, Lucario stopped and turned to look at them.

“I wanted to talk to you without Korrina hearing,” it explained, slightly awkwardly. “She wouldn’t understand this.”

Ash rubbed his forehead, then pulled his hand down his face. He was pretty good for a human, and usually understood his own team pretty well, but Pikachu knew he struggled with other pokemon. “You… wanted to talk to me?” he guessed. “What was so important it couldn’t wait until morning?”

“And why didn’t you want Korrina to hear?” Pikachu added, in the hope Ash would catch it and understand a bit more.

“She’s never really understood aura,” it said, and held out both paws toward Ash. Once it was sure Ash was watching, it focussed, and a small blue ball of light appeared, hovering between them. It slowly pulled its paws apart, and the ball expanded, rising up as it grew, and Pikachu glanced at Ash for his reaction.

Even he wasn’t quite sure what Ash thought about aura. He knew Ash was able to use it, and that apparently he had a lot of it, but he never talked about it. Even when they met Riolu and Lucario, he only actually mentioned his own aura powers in vague, easily-misinterpreted ways, and only if it was unavoidable.

The skin around Ash’s eyes had tightened very slightly, but he didn’t say anything, just watching the ball grow, until it finally burst with a blast of energy that ruffled everyone’s fur and hair.

“You think your aura is the reason you can’t mega evolve safely,” Ash surmised, lowering his gaze back to Lucario. “Not the problem between you and Korrina.”

“There’s no problem between me and Korrina!” Lucario snapped, and Ash smiled, lifting his hands in surrender.

“Okay, sure, but if that’s what you really think, I don’t think you’re being fair on either of you,” he said, and stepped around Lucario to look up at the moon. “When you have a pokemon battle, a pokemon battles alongside their trainer, right? You’re not fighting on your own, but it’s not just the trainer giving orders, either. So when a pokemon loses a battle, it’s not just their fault, just like it’s not just their trainer’s fault either.”

“I don’t know, I still blame Charizard for the Indigo League,” Pikachu grumbled, and Ash grinned, reaching up to scratch his jaw.

“You’re part of a team, Lucario. Just like me and Pikachu. That’s why you can mega evolve, after all,” he said, and glanced back at it. “So I don’t think it’s fair of you to take all the blame for this mega evolution thing. If it was _all_ just your fault, then you wouldn’t be in sync with Korrina enough to mega evolve at all. Like it or not, you’re both kinda broken right now. That’s why you gotta work it out together.”

Lucario looked away, obviously unimpressed with the lesson, and Pikachu sighed. No one ever listened to Ash’s advice, no matter how much they needed to.

“Well, putting all that aside for the moment,” Lucario said mulishly, “that’s only part of what I wanted to ask.”

Ash blinked, either not following or just waiting for an explanation.

“You have so much aura,” it said, and looked up at him again. “How do you control it?”

Pikachu looked at Ash again, and decided he really just wasn’t following. “You’re gonna have to try this a different way,” he advised Lucario.

“I don’t…” Lucario hesitated, then sighed and stepped up again, this time taking Ash’s hands in its paws. It formed the blue ball again, but while Pikachu couldn’t see anything different about it, he did feel Ash tense up underneath him. And then Lucario took its paws away, leaving Ash alone with the glowing blue light hovering over his fingertips.

Only then did Pikachu start to notice differences. It wasn’t as steady, for one thing – the light pulsed and shivered, like the last one had just before it burst. And it felt… he couldn’t quite describe it. It made him think of smells like earth and charcoal, and the sound of a quiet laugh from a voice usually so much louder. It made him think of long walks and gentle hands and strong arms.

It was _Ash’s_ aura, he realised belatedly, just before Ash clenched his hands shut and the ball disappeared.

“You’re asking how I can do that, huh?” Ash asked quietly. “I guess a lucario would know about that. Yeah, I can use aura too.”

Lucario surged forward, staring at him with wide eyes. “And you’re a _human_. How do you control it?”

Pikachu watched Ash’s expression carefully as his trainer shrugged his free shoulder. “It’s not something I think about that much. I don’t really know how to use it, not really.”

“But you have so much of it!” Lucario insisted. “I can sense it, you have power like I can’t even imagine when I’m not mega evolved. And yet you walk around like there’s nothing at all! How do you do it?”

“Uh… sorry, I don’t really understand,” he said awkwardly, and rubbed the back of his neck. “Are you asking… why I don’t use it? I dunno, it just doesn’t seem that useful for me. I’d rather help pokemon get strong than be able to hit people with light.”

“What about the other stuff?” Pikachu couldn’t help asking.

“What, you mean like being able to sense where people are and stuff?” he asked. “I guess. But not everyone who uses aura can do that. You can’t really do that, right, Lucario?”

They both looked at it, and it stared back for a second, surprised, before shaking its head.

“Mostly, I guess I’m not really interested because I don’t…” Ash trailed off, then sighed a little before smiling at Lucario again. “It doesn’t really matter.”

Both pokemon looked at him curiously for a few moments, and Pikachu’s ears drooped slightly. He had a feeling he knew what Ash hadn’t said – that he didn’t really want to be special. Not like that, anyway. There was plenty special about him already, but it was all things humans didn’t usually see or care about. Only pokemon knew. But they couldn’t explain it to anyone – not even Meowth, though all of Team Rocket definitely knew about it. It was just something about him.

Once it was obvious he wasn’t going to explain, Lucario tried again. “But I don’t really want to use my aura either, and I can’t control it. How do you do it?”

When Ash only frowned, Pikachu decided to throw Lucario a bone (pun not intended) and try translating. “It’s saying that you have a lot of aura,” he said, and waited to make sure Ash had understood.

“Oh. Yeah, I heard that from the Lucario before.”

“Lucario doesn’t understand how you can control it.”

“How I… control it?” he asked, then blinked at Lucario. “You’re asking why what happens to you when you mega evolve doesn’t happen to me all the time? Why would it? I’m nowhere near your level!”

Pikachu, who couldn’t sense aura but knew better than to trust Ash on these things, met Lucario’s gaze with a sideways glance. From Lucario’s slightly incredulous expression, it was obvious Ash had no idea what he was talking about, but Pikachu knew better than to argue the point.

“Maybe humour it?” he suggested to Ash instead.

“How do I…?” He winced and scrubbed at his hair again. “Uh… okay. Um…”

He took a couple of seconds, then groaned loudly and dropped gracelessly to the ground, legs and arms folding as he bowed in on himself to think. Pikachu clambered down into his lap, and after a second Lucario knelt down too, though it made a face about all the cold, wet grass.

“The only time I’ve ever tried to use aura, I was trying to protect the Tree of Life,” Ash said eventually. “I used these gloves that could make aura stronger or more focussed, or something. And to start with, I found it kinda hard to do. Like… for me, aura’s not supposed to go out. It’s supposed to stay in.”

Lucario blinked once, and Ash scrunched his face up, trying to understand himself.

“I don’t know how else to explain it. The other time my aura has shown up, it’s because this Riolu was freaking out, and I could… feel its pain. And I could see its memories – the memories that meant the most to it. For me—with my aura—I don’t think it’s about battle and hurting people. It’s about…”

He trailed off again, but Pikachu thought he could understand. It was similar to that special thing about Ash – the thing none of them could describe. Something internal, something powerful, that lifted you up and made you better than you were. And yeah, they were all competitive battlers, and fought for more than fun sometimes, but getting strong with Ash wasn’t about hurting other pokemon. Of course his aura would be the same.

He wondered, mildly surprised by the realisation, if aura was the reason Ash could take so much pain. Why he could take the full force of Pikachu’s own thunderbolt—multiple times—and only fall unconscious for a few minutes. Why burning was a mild inconvenience, and falling from crazy heights only knocked him a little silly for a while. Maybe it had protected him all this time.

“Anyway, whatever it’s about, I don’t think my aura going out of control would be like yours,” Ash said finally. “Your aura is about battle. I think that’s why you get scared and angry – because your aura wants to get out, to be used. And you can’t stop it, even when you want to.”

Lucario nodded, as if this made sense, so Ash continued. “I had to really fight to get my aura to go out and help the Tree. And I did it by… I just… I thought about the pokemon. The people. Everyone who would be sad if the Tree died. I thought about the reasons why I couldn’t fail, and so… I had to do it right. Does that make sense?”

Sense or not, it sure sounded like Ash to Pikachu, and after a second Lucario nodded again.

“So maybe, to control your aura, you just need to think about the reasons why you _don’t_ need to fight,” Ash said slowly, even less sure of himself now. “Think about the things that make you feel safe. Things you can do without aura, that you like doing when you’re not battling.”

“Like when we go for walks,” Pikachu said, smiling up at Ash. “Playing tag and finding amazing places. Right?”

“Right!” Ash agreed, and petted his head. “And good food, and friends.”

“Friends,” Pikachu repeated, warmth filling him as thought of all their amazing companions and teammates. They always left them behind in the end, but while they were there, there was nothing like them.

“You grew up with Korrina,” Ash said as he looked up at Lucario. “You guys are so close, it’s amazing. You must have plenty of amazing memories together that have nothing to do with battling. Don’t you?”

Lucario stared at him for a long few seconds, then nodded slowly. “Korrina has always been there for me.”

“I still think you and Korrina need to work this through together,” Ash said, “but maybe next time you evolve, think about that. Think about her. It’s not about the battle, it’s about getting strong and fighting alongside Korrina. Win or lose, you’ll always have each other.”

“That’s true,” Lucario said quietly. “She has never given up on me for losing a battle.”

“And I don’t think she ever will give up on you,” Ash said firmly. “You’re there for each other, and that’s all that matters. Just focus on that, and you’ll be fine.”

Lucario nodded once more, then smiled and pushed itself to its feet. It pressed its palms together and bowed. “Thank you for your advice.”

“No problem, Lucario,” Ash said warmly.

“Anytime!” Pikachu echoed. Though he’d prefer it wasn’t in the middle of the night next time.

Lucario smiled and nodded to them both, then turned and headed back toward the tree house. Ash and Pikachu watched it go, before Ash sighed loudly and leaned back on his palms, staring up at the moon again.

“Aura, huh? Haven’t really thought about it in a while.”

“I guess not,” Pikachu murmured, and got up on Ash’s knee to join him in watching the sky.

They were quiet for a few minutes. Pikachu found himself thinking back over all the times he’d seen Ash bounce back from things other humans wouldn’t have. All the fire types that had burned, bitten and beat him. His own electricity, coursing through Ash’s body in a way that would have cooked anyone else alive. Psychic attacks. Drowning. Catching pokemon before they could hit the ground – pokemon that most humans couldn’t even lift. All those falls. Pikachu’s tail and ears dropped flat as he remembered it all, and he turned to lean into Ash’s torso, pressing close until Ash shifted one arm to hold him.

Luck, and maybe aura. That was the only reason Ash was still with him.

“I wonder if N had aura too,” Ash said quietly. “Maybe that was why he could understand pokemon’s thoughts.”

“N?” Pikachu repeated, peeking up at him. He didn’t care about N – hadn’t really liked him that much even when they were travelling together. And now, Pikachu just wanted to worry over his trainer. But Ash was still talking.

“I’ve been kinda thinking about him lately. Clemont and Serena talk like him, sometimes,” he said. “You know, going on about how we trust each other, like how I treat you and the other pokemon is something special.”

Pikachu lowered his head again, pressing it into Ash’s ribs. He knew how good he had it, even with all the crazy adventures, but Ash just didn’t understand.

“Even lately, with mega-evolution. All these people we’re meeting with such strong bonds with their pokemon. But everyone still talks like I’m different,” he said softly, and gently squeezed Pikachu a little closer to him. “Like with Frogadier. I don’t get how anyone couldn’t see how awesome it is. I just got lucky enough that it wanted to stay with me. But even Professor Sycamore…”

“You are special,” Pikachu mumbled. “Special to us.”

“You guys are special to me, too. But it’s…” He paused, and Pikachu felt more than saw Ash looking down at him. “You remember Shamounti Island? The thing with Lugia?”

“Yeah…?”

“Ever since we went to Unova, it’s felt like that,” he said quietly. “The stuff with N, then Zekrom and Reshiram—”

When Ash went and almost died _again_ , Pikachu thought darkly, remembering the life bleeding out of Ash’s eyes, his breathing harsh and shallow as the cold, thin air took him away. And all Pikachu could do was watch.

“—going home felt so weird after all that. And then, here… the stuff with Hoopa, and even though nothing else is really going on, it feels…” Ash shifted again, gazing rising back to the moon. “It feels like something big is going to happen. And I’ve gotta be strong enough for it. You know?”

“I know,” Pikachu agreed quietly. He didn’t want to think about it, but he could feel it too.

They sat quietly for another couple of minutes, before Ash suddenly shivered. “Geez, I just realised how cold it is out here!” he said, and then cried out, jerking up onto his knees so fast that it was only the fact he was holding on that kept Pikachu from tumbling onto the grass. “Oh man! I’m all wet! I’m gonna have to change! Ugh, why couldn’t Lucario talk to me during the day?”

“No one told you to sit down!” Pikachu said with a laugh, before squirming his way out of Ash’s arm to clamber up to his usual position.

“Come on. Let’s go back to bed,” he said wearily, and got up to walk. Pikachu smiled at him—so typical—but it faded when Ash absently reached up to pet him. “Thanks for staying with me, Pikachu.”

It wasn’t anything he hadn’t said before, but with what he’d just been talking about… this time it meant something more. It wasn’t just about the years, or the battles, or the conferences they somehow _never_ won…

This was about the other stuff. The legendaries, the near death experiences, the friends won and lost.

The thing that was coming, that Ash would have to be strong for.

Well, Pikachu would be strong too. No matter what happened, he was going to protect his trainer.

So he pushed in close again, nuzzling his cheek against Ash’s own. “Always.”

They were in this together.

**Author's Note:**

> The 48 are a collection of unfinished or pointless fics saved to my hard drive, posted here for people's interest or in case they would like to take them up.
> 
> Yes, I am one of the people who make way too much of the aura thing that was introduced and forgotten in the space of a couple of years. The whole Aura Guardian thing makes way too much sense! I demand Ash have a plotline whether the show runners like it or not!  
> Also, I confess, I got through like... twenty random episodes of the Unova series? Including some from Decolor Islands or whatever it was called, which I suspect is when they replaced their showrunner/director. But it was such a huge turnaround from that to XY that I feel it needed some explanation. Several of my pokemon fics make reference to it, so... apologies.


End file.
